The Media We Want?

Does one get the media they want, or want the media they get? I believe that we get the media that we want. The media is powerful and can influence people in many different ways, but we can choose how we interpret the media that we are receiving. We can also control the media that we are being exposed to. Far too often, people focus on exactly what the media is stating, rather than looking further into a topic to get another side of the story. This becomes a manner in which we can control the media that we are being exposed to. The media also can effect us psychologically with a type of “brainwashing” in that the media will control what it reports; what we see and hear, and encourages us to believe in it. One can interpret the media as it comes, or they can expose themselves to more media and get a better understanding on a certain topic.

            In hearing a News segment on the radio, or catching the 6:00 o’clock news segment on the television, we have to ability to understand what we are hearing in the way that we want to understand and believe it. Or, we can be more skeptical and look for more information through another form of media.  The media impacts our reactions towards things; it controls what we hear and what they derive to be important. The media does not always focus on both sides of a story.  The two main methods of media development is agenda setting- “the process by which media producers set up the issues- the agenda- that the media will focus on and that audiences will subsequently perceive to be important” (p.25) and gatekeeping- “the process of controlling what gets included and whose voices are heard in the media, particularly in the news” (p.25). With those methods, it shows that we are able to get the media we want.  We can interpret the information the way that we want to, and we can disregard the information that is uninformative.  Also, media does not always show all sides of a story, in some cases leaving significant information out. In the text it says “…it is important to show all images from the conflict, however violent or upsetting they may be” (p.57). This statement is very significant in the way that, people don’t always get a full look at something that is happening and are choosing to form an opinion based on a little segment or a mass of segments that they see, and yet still may not beware of the full truth.  The media may be seen as brainwashing people into what they are seeing and not giving the full truth about many stories.

            Further, psychologically the media also effects how we interpret it things. I believe that the media attempts to persuade many people with little things such as catchy ads, billboard posting, or commercials.  According to the text the term ‘effects’  “…suggest there is a precise response triggered by the media: we watch something and it makes us do something” (p.45). The media catches our focus on a daily basis, whether it is an ad about a theme park or an ad about ways to lose weight. When we see these eye-catching advertisements or hear the catchy jingle we become drawn to the message, whatever it may be. We can choose to listen, watch, or change the message and in doing so, we are able to choose the media that we want to get.

O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler J. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Victoria, Australia: Oxford.